Doctors succumb to anti-Catholic "googly": Catholic Health chief

Published: 08 January 2007

Catholic Health Australia CEO, Francis Sullivan, says that the Australian Medical Association had been "sold a googly" running an "anti-Catholic line" after its president said doctors want state governments to stop contracting to Catholic hospitals that refuse to provide IVF, abortion and sterilisation.

In the latest in a series of articles on the role of Catholic health institutions, The Australian quoted the Association chief, President Mukesh Haikerwal, as saying taxpayers had a right to expect public hospitals would provide a full range of medical services.

If church-linked organisations wanted to exclude some services in accordance with church teaching, they should not tender for contracts to operate public hospitals, Dr Haikerwal told the paper.

"There should be some compromise in some areas but not in areas of service provision," he said.

Dr Haikerwal said he had recently referred a patient to the Mercy Hospital at Werribee in Melbourne's west for treatment of a kidney stone.

But the Catholic operated hospital refused to perform a vasectomy at the same time for the man.

"These are the sorts of stupid things that happen," Dr Haikerwal said.

"In the era when we are trying to reduce unwanted pregnancies and ... some of these other so-called social problems, it seems a bit counter-intuitive (that) some of these procedures that are accepted in this country and worldwide are not able to be performed for reasons other than medical contraindications."